The Historic Towns Trust: Investigating Canterbury’s Past for the new Historic Towns Atlas

The new Historic Atlas of Canterbury is based on excavations undertaken by Canterbury Archaeological Trust since its foundation over 50 years ago and informed by recent historical research on the city. The Atlas will be part of the series of Atlases Published by the Historic Towns Trust, which has already published similar volumes on York, Winchester, Oxford and Windsor. Given Canterbury’s importance as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the city council’s plans to reopen Canterbury Castle to the public, the Historic Towns Trust have decided that the publication of the Canterbury Atlas should be their next publication.

The Atlas will contain a series of up-to-date maps of Canterbury at different historical periods and an explanatory gazetteer of the most important buildings from Roman times onwards. This will be a unique opportunity for Canterbury Archaeological Trust to bring together their in-depth findings about the development of Canterbury in a publicly accessible format. It will benefit public understanding of the Archaeology and the History of Canterbury and will have widespread educational applications for Archaeology, History and Geography in schools and universities.

Research for the Atlas has also uncovered some surprising survivals from Canterbury’s rich building history. Jackie Eales will talk about the process of writing and researching the Atlas, as well as some of the new discoveries made by the editorial team.

Full details of the programme, including dates, speakers and booking information, are available on the BALH website:

https://www.balh.org.uk/historic-towns-trust-2026